Coyote Moon

This "AHP" episode from 1959 is clever and well done with drama and suspense as it takes a twist in the end. A professor is on his way to a teaching post in California and along the way he picks up a hitchhiker named Julie. And things start to not seem right even more when Julie's father and brother are picked up also. It's like the trio has other things in mind like theft. It's a con game as this episode proves that along the way of travels you shouldn't trust people or pick up strangers. Anyway the professor wises up and sees a plan and moment to change the game as this episode takes a twist and turn with justice being brought upon the con artists! Overall well done episode that teaches turn about is fair play as what comes around goes around!

The Professor (Macdonald Carey) is a real sap. He is driving cross country and comes upon a lady who bums a ride off of him. Soon, she tells the Professor to stop, as she sees her father by the side of the road (Edgar Buchanan). Without really even asking, he gets in the car. Soon the Professor finds that the father, in particular, is a real thief....and you wonder how long this will continue until the Professor either tosses them out OR the pair kill him and take the car! They are truly awful....and you wonder where is this going next. And, since it's "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", what happens next could be almost anything!

I have to say, this episode really had me guessing. I had no idea WHAT was going to happen next...but it certainly turned out to be very funny. I appreciate this, as the episode truly is most original and silly...and quite enjoyable. Well worth your time...and quite a few laughs at the end.

First, you have to love the title.

Second, an over the top story, but that's Hitch and you know there's going to be a satsfying ending.

MacDonald Carey plays a professor driving across country who picks up a young woman called Julie (played by Collin Wilcox). It's not long before she's joined by her father (rascally Edgar Buchanan) and her brother, another work of art.

Do the math.

The genius of it is how professor Carey fakes out the fakers. Definitely Hitchcock loved this one, written by Harold Swanton, who wrote 10 episodes for the master of suspense.

Both Buchanan and Collin Wilcox shine in their roles, infact, complimenting each other they are that devious. The on location desert settings adds to the bitter flavor.

MacDonald Carey, an actors actor, went on to many award winning years with the daytime soaper DAYS OF OUR LIVES. He claims he took a chance with the show and it turned out to be best choice he ever made.

A smirking ending (perfect description) to remember. You'll want to see this again.

From SEASON 5 EPISODE 4 remastered Universal dvd box set. 5 dvds. Released 2012. The classic "gold" box, one of the most popular among collectors. Released 2012. All seven half hour seasons are on dvd in a single box. Released 2022. A gift to treasure.

Interesting character study here, though there is no criminal element in this episode. Good acting and situations that should "talk" to many audiences. Just a drama, with only a handful of characters. Edgar Buchanan contributes a lot in this plot where Madonald Carey is also excellent in this role in which many folks could recognize themselves. This story could have been used in many anthology shows besides this one, mostly destined to crime schemes.

Hitchcock's personal favorite among his own films, Shadow of a Doubt, intersects in this episode with TV's "Petticoat Junction," insofar as the secondary male lead of the film, MacDonald Carey, matches wits against a very scrubby cigarette-bumming Edgar Buchanan here. A full-time career can be had just trying to track which Hitchcock film actors appear in which, if any, episodes of both this series and the shorter-lived but more cinematic "Alfred Hitchcock Hour" which followed it. Try a second career at comparing the similar settings of various episodes, for example, this one with another set on the sandy highways of the Southwest, "Escape to Sonoita," starring the very young Burt Reynolds, who faces more dangerous strangers than the freeloading "tramps" of this episode.

If you find yourself as annoyed and bored as the traveling professor (Carey) is with the excesses of the hitchhikers — the supposedly pregnant daughter, the menacing son, and the old father (Buchanan), then just wait for the payoff of the ending. The coyote in the protagonist's nature emerges just when it's most needed!